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A new technology that could help speechless
people who use devices to talk, speak in real human voices instead of a
computerised sound, has been developed by researchers, including one of
Indian-origin. One of the most famous speechless individuals is British
physicist Stephen Hawking. To communicate with people, he uses
computers that generate synthesised voices, but they sound stilted and
unnatural. Scientists have now developed VocaliD, a product that blends
real human voices from healthy talkers with characteristics of the
client's unique speech patterns. "Right now, people who need to use
synthesised voices to talk for them use a handful of generic voices,
because creating them is time-consuming and costly," said Rupal Patel,
associate professor at Northeastern University. "We feel strongly the
voice from the device should reflect something about that individual,"
Patel said. Patel, along with Tim Bunnell, a professor at the
University of Delaware developed VocaliD, which uses a technique called
voice morphing, 'Discovery News' reported. The technology has positive
implications for individuals who are autistic, or who suffer from
disorders such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or stroke, Patel
said. "There's a relatively broad market of two-and-a-half to three
million people who use devices to talk for them," said Patel. "We'd
love to see this technology being available to that population. We feel
that if we can personalise the device, they will be more likely to use
it and more socially acceptable," she said. The technology is based on
the fact that even speechless individuals can still make sounds, Bunnell
said. "We can always grab characteristics of their voice and reapply
the process as they go along," he said. "With individuals who have
neuro-degenerative diseases such as ALS, we capture speech from them
right after they're diagnosed, while they're still speaking fluently and
create their new voice from that. It captures elements of their voice
that default devices don't typically use," he added. VocaliD was
developed as an extension of another product called Model Talker, a
text-to-speech synthesis system developed by Bunnell. VocaliD aims to
personalise the speech so that all vowels and consonants are clearly
understandable.

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